Gerhard Herm
(Morrow and Co: 1975)
Translated from the German by Caroline Hillier
1. The Bedouins of the Sea
Herm begins with the image of Alexander the Great, who in 332 BC built a causeway to show Tyre that 'they too belonged to the mainland.' He wanted to sacrifice in their temple to Melqart, whom the Greeks equated with Hercules, mythical founder of the Macedonian dynasty, but had been denied. Of the three peoples which later came to make up the Phoenician race, that of the desert tribes of the Sinai Peninsula are the most important. They are a Semitic race, a term that lumps together "all the major races which from 3500 BC onward emigrated from the deserts of Arabia towards the flourishing civilizations of the Nile and Euphrates." Sargon I of Akkad was one, as were the founders of the later Assyrian and Babylonian empires.
The 'Amorite Invasion' took place between 2300 and 2000 BC. The name Amorite is Babylonian in origin, derived from the word for western land. In about 2000 the Amorites conquered or infiltrated the Akkadian Empire and founded successive dynasties, including that of Hammurabi in Babylon. Some Amorites stayed on the Mediterranian coast-- in Palestine and what was to become Phoenicia. They were called the Canaanites; the Phoenicians still usually called themselves Canaanites when Alexander took Tyre.
2. The City in the Cedar Grove
In 1860, the Druzes killed 30000 Maronites in then Turkish Syria. Napoleon III sent an expedition along with orientalist Ernst Renan. He was especially interested in Byblos, from biblion, book, Semitic name is Gebal, found an image of Baalat- Gebal. Later scholarship found the town to be inhabited in the Old Stone Age. In 2300 BC, its temple of Baalat seems to have been burned by Sinai hordes. The Semitic Bedouins joined with the Giblites to form the new race. The Amorite invasion is of importance because of the numbers of people it brought in, the Giblites had themselves mixed with Bronze Age peoples around 3500.
The Palermo stone from about 2650- 2600 BC: Senefru had written how he got 40 ships of timber from Lebanon. The Giblites at that time wore Egyptian dress, jewels, hieroglyphic script, and gave Baalat the appearance of Hathor- Isis. The Tale of Sinuhe tells of a court official of the Middle Kingdom from about 1971 BC who fled to Lebanon after a succession problem. The book shows an important trading center and a knowledge of the area. It possibly influenced the fifth Book of Moses' description of Canaan.
3. The Coming of the Aryans
The Aryans were responsible for each of the three large invasions into Egyptian territory.
1. Around 1500 BC, Aryans, probably from Armenia, disrupted the population structure of the Tigris- Euphrates plain. One of the displaced groups was the Semitic Hyksos (called hekau-khasut "rulers of foreign lands" by the Egyptians) who, with the new technology, the chariot, easily conquered Egypt, then suffering from internal conflict. Wrapped in a cocoon of luxury, they left no permanent mark on Egyptian culture. Around 1570 BC, King Amosis of Upper Egypt drove the Hyksos kings from their capital in the Delta and thus began the New Kingdom. In 1377 BC, Amenophis IV ascended. He replaces Egyptian pantheon with Aten, and took the name Akhenaten, 'it pleases Aten.'
2.The Hittites, oldest of all civilized Aryan nations, led by Shuppiluliumash, swept southward and joined with the Amorite Habiru, led by Abdi- Ashirta, against Egypt. The letters of Rib- Adi, prince of Byblus, to Amenophis III and Akhenaten show his fear of Abdi- Ashirta. One Canaanite town after another falls to the Habiru. Rib- Adi begs, but Akhenaten can do nothing. The Egyptians never again had such control over their northern provinces as before Akhenaten. Rameses II signs a peace treaty with Khattushilish II, Hittite king, and married his daughter, setting the boundary between the Egyptians and Aryans north of Byblos.
3. The Thekel, a Sea People, attacked Egyptian territory around 1200 BC. Their ships controlled the eastern Mediterranean, and they allowed no other ships to sail. They are portrayed in the Wen- Amon papyrus, which describes Egyptian trade representative Wen- Amon's encounter with their influence in Byblus. They are the subject of the next chapter.
4. Odysseus and Achilles-- Ancestors of the Phoenicians
In the heyday of trading between Byblos and Egypt, navigation was hardly more than advanced rafting. Cretans, and later Mycenaeans, were the only ones who sailed open waters at that time. Suddenly, in the 11th century BC, Canaan gained this ability too. Dimitri Baramki, curator of the archaeological museum of the American University in Beirut, believes the Sea Peoples joined with the Canaanites and were absorbed by them, a fusion creating the Phoenician nation. This is thus the second main pivot in the history of the Lebanese people.
' Krethi and Plethi': The Philistines are called the Pelethi or Pelethites. The Kerethi, or Cherethites, were Cretans. Oswald Spengler portrays the conquering of Minoan civilization [c. 1380 BC] as the collapse of a decadent culture. Achaeans from Mycenae-- the Pelethi-- took over her palaces and her thalassocracy and maintained it until 1150. Bronze Age Mycenaeans were defeated by Iron Age barbarians who attacked from the land and the sea. Mycenaeans were integrated into the sweep east, and attacked the Hittites, swept across Anatolia, entered Syria, destroyed Ugarit and reached the Nile Delta. In 1149 BC, Rameses III repelled them at Pelusium, most easterly point in the mouth of the Nile. He put what was left of the Pelethi in prison camps and later allowed them to settle in the Delta. He allowed some to return to the Gaza strip, where they founded the Philistine five- town league. Mycenaean pottery is found in the major towns of the Philistine League. Some of the Philistines not only had close contact with the Achaeans, but were descended from them. Goliath challenged David in Mycenaean armor.
5. They Lived on Man- made Islands
The influx of Kerethi, Pelethi and the Sea Peoples was detrimental to Byblos at first. Tyre and Sidon surpassed her. The Tyrians seem to have been a different race than the Giblites. When Cretan- style navigation was introduced to Lebanon with the keeled- ship, new westerly routes opened up to Greece, Italy and Spain. Hiram, Tyrian king about 1000 BC transferred his city from the coast out to an island. It was called Sor, 'rocks' in Phoenician. They were dependent upon rainwater. At Aradus, according to Strabo, they laid funnels over fresh- water sources in the salt water.
6. Establishment and Rise of the Firm of Baal, Sons and Co.
The rise of Tyre and Sidon marks the beginning of the Phoenician trading empire, which began with piratical methods: they had a reputation as kidnappers, according to Herodotus and kidnapped Io from Argos. Shipping switched from woods to smaller, more expensive products. (Ezekiel 27:9- 25), one of the most important accounts of Phoenician economic history, leads one to believe that they had a trade network that included countries around the Indian Ocean. Tyre and Sidon produced the first transparent glass and probably introduced the technique of glass blowing. The famous purple dye possibly came from Ugarit. Over 10,000 murex brandaris and murex trunculus must die for a few grams. Its thought Greek word Phoinike is derived from porphyra, Greek purple.
7. Dealings with King Solomon
In 1836, German theologian Friedrich Wagenfield published forged writings of Phoenician priest Sanchuniathon. The best history about a long section of Phoenician history is the Bible. Around 1500 the Aramaean migration swept up a group of Semites, Hurrians and Aryans called the "House of Joseph." Joseph rose to power during the Hyksos rule of Egypt. When King Amosis forced them out of the Delta around 1570. They were put into labor camps and called Aperu, probably a designation for a low social class. The name became the Ebrews or Hebrews of the Bible. Moses led them into exodus, and they joined the Aramaean migration. In 1100 BC, they are west of the Sea of Chinnereth and the Dead Sea. The Aryan " Sea People" Philistines pressed up from the South and attacked the Hebrews, who formed a defensive alliance of 12 tribes. Saul, the first king of Israel, met the Aryans at Megiddo and was defeated. Saul killed himself, Israel fell under Philistine rule. David, condottiere of a Philistine king, built up and army, let himself be made king of Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. David died in 966, succeeded by son Solomon. He wanted to build a temple, and had to rely upon Tyrian architects. The Temple of Solomon was built in the Phoenician style. The pillars of Boaz and Jachin have antecedents in gold and emerald pillars in Tyrian temple of Melqart.
8. Baal and Sons, and Israel
The ships of Tarshish (I King 10:22) launched in the Red Sea in the time of Solomon were only nominally Israel's. Ophir lay somewhere at the end of the Red Sea. Tarshish is commonly thought of as Tartessos in Spain: this would have meant an Israeli fleet in competition with Phoenicia. Dutch Jesuit Father Simons, relying on the archaeological evidence of Nelson Gleuck, believes the word is derived from Akkadian rashashu, to melt or be melted. Gleuck found large copper mining and smelting operations in Solomon's Ezion- geber on the Gulf of Aqaba. These must have been Phoenician. The city was built as an integrated whole. A symbiosis between Israel and Phoenicia.
9. The Tyrian Whore
After Solomon's death the artifical kingdom broke up into Judah and Israel. About 875, Omri stabilized Israel and had built Samaria. At the palace of Hiram at Tyre, Jezebel's father had been a priestess of Astarte. Her father Ithobaal had been a priest of Astarte before he usurped the throne. To promote good relations, Omri married his oldest son Ahab to Jezebel. Elisha took over Elijah's role and openly battled Jezebel by promoting Jehu as a rival to Ahab's son Ahaziah. They killed the heir and threw Jezebel out the window. Her death: (2 Kings 9). Her daughter Athaliah ruled in Judah: she had the rest of the house of David killed and was herself killed. This victory over the infidels was sealed with a religious purge. They cut down the groves. The Jews had sacrificed all their trade opportunities with Tyre and Sidon. It was a sacrifice to Jahweh: for now Judah, Israel and Phoenicia had to face onslaughts from Assyria and Babylon alone.
Herm contrasts Jewish monotheism with Phoenician pantheism: a trinity of gods: El, Asherat or Astarte (Baalat in Byblos), and their son Baal (Adon, Adoni in Byblus; Melqart in Tyre and Eshmun in Sidon. El is characterized as an unfaithful husband. Asherat- Baalat was known to the Sumerians as Innin, to the Babylonians and Assyrians as Ishtar and to the Egyptians as Isis. Baal- Adon- Melqart had to die once a year and be resurrected, like Osiris, Sumerian Dummuzi and Babylonian Tammuz. He had been worshipped by the Canaanites. In a Canaanite legend, he fought a kind of Minotaur and is killed. Below, there were lesser deities. The Phoenicians preferred to worship on mountains by springs and rivers and in woods. Their temples were small, and made of limestone. The mother and son were worshipped together on the Adonis River, present day Nahr- Ibrahim, where Adon was supposed to have been killed. Temple prostitution of even respectable women occurred regularly. Moses had forbidden giving children to Molech (Leviticus 18:21), Abraham illustrates this story. The Phoenicians never gave it up. Molech come from the word for sacrifice on a topheth (Jeremiah 7:31)in Hebrew and Phoenician is MLK "molk", which survives in Latin as molchomor "sacrificed offering of a lamb." The Hebrews broke with the idea that a human can be sacrificed by his fellow man as a part of nature. From the Phoenicians, the Jews got the pastoral festival of Mazzoth at the barley harvest, the Sukkoth, the fest of the tabernacles, a number of hymns changed into psalms and their temple architecture.
10. From the Lebanon to the Edge of the World
Dimitri Baramki calls the 9th century BC Phoenicia's 'golden age.' Tyre appears to have surpassed her neighbors, possibly was their leader, and Melqart was ascendant, being recognized even in Aramaean Damascus, which Tyre considered his birthplace. A stele erected in 850 near Aleppo gives us our first image of him: he wears a conical hat and carries and axe. The most famous aspect of his Tyrian temple are two pillars-- one of gold, the other of emerald-- which experts agree evolved from 2 holy stone which once lay under a sacred tree.
Whether and how the cities worked together is conjecture. The area ruled by the cities stretched from Acre to a point north of Aradus. There was no road to link these places till the Roman times. The cities were ruled by kings of divine manifestation. No aristocracy in the classic sense, but a large middle class. Carthage never had a king. A society of entrepreneurs, they were reluctant to wage war. Herm speculates that Cyprus was the first and most important colony (c. 1000 BC) of Tyre, Sidon or both. Kypros gets it name from copper, or gives its name to the metal, which is found there in abundance. Phoenicians laid the foundations for the temple of Salamis; another image of Baal was found in Engomi, nearby. It shows a god with bulls' horns. Zeno the Stoic had Phoenician blood. Frenchman P. Cintas first recognized the "phoenician landscape," where colonies could be found.
Some believe that the colonial period began for Phoenicia as late as a the 8th century BC, coinciding with the Greeks, but Herm believes that the fusion with the Aegean Aryans, the "Sea Peoples" triggered their nautical expansion and colonization. About 1100, they settled in Rhodes, Thasos, Thera, Cythera, Crete and Melos, which may have got its name from Byblos. Herodotus recounts a 'Tyrian quarter" in Memphis. At the western Mediterranean , they founded Gedes (Cadiz) and Lixus, in Africa. They traded with England and Ireland. Thucydides says they once had control over most of Sicily. By the 9th century they had settled in Sardinia.
By 609, they were under Egypt again, King Necho II, who got some to sail around Africa, through the Pillars of Hercules, which they did in 2 years. Necho built a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, which was alternately open until the 8th century AD.
11. The End of a Golden Age
The Golden age of Phoenicia lasted from about 1150 to 850 BC. The new Assyrian kingdom of Ashurbanipal II ended this for good. They were followed the the Babylonians and the Persians. The slow decline lasted from 850 BC- 350. The Phoenicians joined an anti- Assyrian League and were punished by Sennasherib, who came to the throne in 704 BC, for it. The other towns joined Sennacherib against Tyre, which held out for 5 years. In 612, Nineveh was overthrown by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II.. Phoenicia had a brief freedom. Then their ally Necho II was defeated by the Babylonians in 605. Nebuchadnezzar sought to take Tyre from 585 to 572. Cyrus II conquered the Babylonian empire in 539. Under the Persians they again enjoyed a relative independence.
The first sea battle between the Phoenicans and the Greeks took place off Salamis under Persia. Tyre and Sidon suffered their first naval defeat. They were defeated in both major naval encounters in the Second Persian Invasion. Tripolis was founded by Sidon, Tyre and Aradus in conjunction in the 4th century: Phoenicia's first parliament, according to Diodorus Siculus.
12. Admired and Hated by the Greeks
If Europe is so different that Asia, why is Europa abducted from Phoenicia? She was taken off to Crete and Agenor, her father sent her 4 brothers after her. Phoenix is who the Phoenicians are named after. Cilix gave the Cilicians their name. Thasos erected a statue to Melqart at Olympia, then sailed to the island named after him. Cadmus founded Thebes, calling it Onga: Heracles, Dionysius, Oedipus and Antigone were supposed to have been born there. In the Odyssey , Phoenicians appear as rogues; in the Iliad they are clever craftsmen and artists. Aphrodite was imported from Phoenicia. Cyprus and Cythera claimed to have first received her. She was called Porne, the whore. Adonis was the son of Phoenix and Smyrna. He sent a third of the year with Persephone, a third with Aphrodite and a third free. Ares changed into a boar and gored the god, killing him. Dionysus came from afar, and died and was resurrected. Heracles comes from Tyre's Melqart.
13. The Rise of Carthage
If Josephus is correct, Dido was the great- granddaughter of Mattan of Tyre; in the native tongue her name was Elisha or, Graecized, Elissa. At the death of Mattan, his son Pygmalion ruled jointed with his sister. Elisha's husband Acharbas was a priest of Astarte, who held the real power in the city. Pygmalion had his brother- in- law killed. Pygmalion is also the name of the hero in the Galatea myth, in which Pygmalion is so in love with Aphrodite that he creates a sculpture of her with which he falls in love. She enters the statue and bears him two sons as Galatea. The historical Pygmalion seems to have been husband of a Cypriote priestess of Astarte.
Carthage was not part of the Phoenician colonizing programme, but its inhabitants were more rigid devotees of the old Phoenician religion. In Africa, the immediately had trouble with the Phoenician colony of Utica. The King there threatened to destroy the colony if Elissa did not marry him. The princess responded by throwing herself into a pyre as did Dido in Virgil. The name Qart- Hadasht, which the Greeks modified to Carchedon and the Romans to Carthage can be translated as "new city" or "new capital city." Greek expansion led to the emergence of a Carthaginian sea empire. About 600, the Greeks founded Messalia, which is Marseilles, on the south coast of France dealing another economic blow to the copper merchants. About 580, they were making their first attempts to drive the Phoenicians out of Sicily. Tyre could not help: they were being besieged by Nebuchadnezzar. The Greeks attacked Sardinia, which was defended successfully by a joint Phoenician/ Etruscan venture. The Etruscans were Trojans, according to V.I. Georgiev, who traced the similarity of their languages, and notes that an early Greek word for Trojans was Troes and Trosia for Troy, leading him to break down E- trus- can
Carthage disarmed their own militia, except for an elite corps and used hired mercenaries, principally Berbers of Tunis, Celtic Iberians and cavalrymen from Numidia and Mauretania. The Phoenician ability to hold their own was radically altered by the creation of Greek tyranny. In 498, Hippocrates came to power in Gela. Herodotus says that the battle between Gelon and Hamilcar occurred in 480, exactly at the time of the invasion of Xerxes. Both ended in Greek victories. In 510, the Etruscan Tarquins were overthrown and Latin Rome took command in Italy.
14. The Punic Empire of the Phoenicians
By the end of the 5th century, the Carthaginians must have realized that they could only depend upon themselves in future conflicts. They were extremely conservative and were still bartering after their rivals had long switched to coins. The gods showed marked changes from out in the east: Baal- Melqart became the solemn Baal- Hammon resembling the old Lebanese god El, the Astarte modeled on Aphrodite became lofty Tanit, also called Tanit Pene Baal (Tanit the face of Baal). The Western Phoenicians probably only too the trinity (Baal- Hammon, Eshmun and Tanit seriously. The burning of offerings, primarily human beings, remained their chief means of communication with the gods. The principle of molchmor, by which an animal could replace a human as sacrifice, was not applicable in every case. Expressions of grief on the part of the sacrificed diminished the value of the sacrifice.
The Carthaginians had a constitution of which Aristotle and Eratosthenes of Cyrene wrote. The highest power in the city was given to the suffetes (cf. Hebrew shophetim: judges). They were consuls or doges, embodying the monarchical power, originally, maybe, Tyrian viceroys. The suffetes were chosen from patrician families and were head of the community for a year or two. He could not declare war, control the treasury or enforce his moral dictates. A committee of 100 was the main political body. The public assembly had the last word. This arrangement had come about for fear of military control. Roman historian Justin says that in 550 a Carthaginian general marched against his hometown because he had been banished. Later, Magon, a general, made the commander of the army a hereditary post for his family. A committee was set up to monitor generals' conduct in the field, which opened the door for the parliamentary constitution.
The Carthaginians linked Tartessos, an area in southern Spain, with the cities of the east. In 500 BC, this place disappeared so suddenly, it leads Herm to speculate that this was the lost Atlantis of Plato. Cadiz was an old Phoenician base in Spain, and historians believe that the Phoenicians had more than 20 ports on the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal, and that Carthage ruled almost half of Spain, giving rise to the belief that many Spanish Jews were in fact descended from the Phoenicians. About 450 BC, a Carthaginian captain named Himilco reached Brittany and Cornwall. About 25 years later, Hanno sailed along the Atlantic coast of Madagascar. There were already several Phoenician ports on the Western coast of Africa. Pindar, a contemporary of Hanno, believed that the world ended at the Strait of Gibraltar. The Carthaginians traded primarily with uncivilized peoples and so it was only in the 4th century that they began coinage. For better quality goods, people turned to Greece. Carthage got corn from Sardinia, where they built large glass factories, wine and oil from Sicily and fish from Morocco. Under them, Malta became a major trading center. Carthaginians put their own wealth into land, and we have inherited a treatise from them by a Mago on agriculture. The Carthaginians developed agriculture into a systematic science and made their hinterland a granary, later used by the Romans. They gave regular economic aid to the Numidians in eastern Algeria, and to the Berber tribes.
At the height of their power, in the early 3rd century, there were probably 400,000 people in the town.
15. No Empire for Carthage.
In 405 BC Hannibal took well- situated and rich Greek city Acragas (modern Agrigento). His strategy involved technical expertise: huge attacking towers. He was from the Magonid family, grandfather Hamilcar, father Gisgo, whose brother was Hanno. The suffetes had driven the brothers out of the city. Both settled in Greek Sicilian Selinus, which Hannibal later destroyed. The chroniclers say it was vengeance for his grandpa's defeat at Himera (480). He answered a cry of help from Carthage's and Athens' ally Segesta against Sparta's ally Selinus and entered the Peloponnesian War. He used the permission he had been granted to attack Himera, with the context of protecting west Sicilian Phoenician bases. He annexed these territories and the captured cities as permanent provinces: "epicrataia." (One hundred years later the engagement of Carthage in Sicily provoked its war with Rome.) His deputy Himilco finished the job at Acragas after sacrificing a child to Baal- Hammon when Hannibal died in a plague during the siege. The citizens abandoned their city. The Carthaginians seem suddenly to have realized with their taking of the city how far culturally superior the Greeks were. "Henceforward, anyone who prided himself on his status in the best Carthaginian circles dressed like a Greek, behaved like one, and placed a statue of Zeus or Artemis beside the bare stones which symbolized his won gods at his household shrine." (219). Perpetual warfare followed as Carthaginians sought Syracuse. The warfare benefited neither Carthage nor the Hellenes. Himilco gave Dionysius I a peace treaty and gained most of the cities it had conquered. Dionysius then used his envoys to set up Carthage as Greek enemy number 1. In 398 he struck back, capturing Moyta. The fight lasted years ended in status quo ante. The Carthaginians built a temple to Demeter, and hired Greek priests. Himilco starved himself to death. Plato feared the Grek language would be supplanted by the Phoenician in Sicily.
3 things come across in the accounts: 1. they were brutal, subject to a primitive belief in the necessity of blood offering. 2. they were not clean. 3. By the end of their encounter with Dionysius, they seem no longer at the height of their power: still using chariots, no match for hoplites, only clearly superior on the sea.
The Hellenistic age held no place for the Phoenicians. Aradus and Byblos put ships at Alexander's disposal against Tyre. Cyprus offered a contingent of 120 units. The Tyrians bound the statue of Apollo to its socle with golden chains, anchoring it to the altar of Melqart. With the taking of Tyre by Alexander, Phoenician history comes to an end. Flavius Arrianus speaks of a Macedonian declaration of war given to Carthage after Tyre's conquest. The successors of the Macedonian king, the Diadolchi, sent Ophellas, an officer of King Ptolemy of Egypt, to penetrate the Carthaginian zone in 310 BC. He joined with Syracusan Agathocles, who almost conquered the capital, for when pushed back into Syracuse he left the city to its defenses and sailed to Carthage and burned his ships behind him. The Carthaginians gave power to Bomilcar, who tried to become tyrant. The suffetes made a peace offering to Agathocles
16. Then Came Rome
The Eastern Phoenicians now belonged to the Seleucid state. King Antigonus built great dockyards. Ptolemy Philadelphus reopened the Suez canal and cost them their Southern Arabian trade. Seleucid rulers seldom interfered with Tyre. The city states must have been by now thoroughly Hellenized: they even had a kind of Olympic games, held every 5 years.
The First Punic War: The suffetes signed 3 treaties with Rome: 510, 348, 306 BC, agreeing on spheres of influence. The friendship lasted for about 200 years as Rome spread across the land. They encountered the Italian Greeks. Greek Tarentum, its harbor seized in 303 BC, turned to Agathocles, then, after his death, King Pyrrhus of Epirus. Pyrrhus wanted a Greek empire in southern Italy. The Romans were forced to seek peace terms from him. One- time Campanian auxiliaries of Agathocles had settled at Messana, calling themselves Mamertines, or sons of Mars. In 265, being besieged by Hieron of Syracuse, they asked Carthage and Rome for help. When Rome came and gave no sign of leaving, Carthage joined with Syracuse to drive the Romans out and failed. The Carthaginians said the Romans were at fault for breaking treaty terms that prevented Rome from establishing itself in Sicily. Carthage landed at Acragas, but were defeated by Rome. Carthage remained unchallenged on the sea until 261. The Romes (reportedly) built 100 quinqueremes on a Punic model in the shortest time and equipped them with revolutionary ladders hanging from the mast for boarding other ships. In 260 off Mylae Rome beat an equal number of Punic ships, ending Phoenician invincibility on the seas.
In the 6th year of the war, Rome built a huge armada and sailed for Carthage, taking Tunis and seemed soon to win, but were fought under the walls by the Carthaginians led by Xanthippus, a Spartan officer. The Carthaginians used elephants, learned from Pyrrhus, and won. At this time only 2 Punic bases held out in western Sicily. Hamilcar Barca was forced to agree that Sicily would be Roman. He was the product of a Hellenistic age. "Barca" probably corresponded to the Seleucid or Ptolemaic titles, is usually translated as 'lightning,' 'single combatant' or Samnite. Hanno, a citizen, was at the same time enlarging Carthage's north African territory while Hamilcar was in Sicily. Hamilcar's troops (Iberians, Celts, Ligurians and Greeks) returned and demanded their pay. They fortified a camp 200 miles west of Carthage: Sicca. Matho, a Libyan cavalry soldier, seemed to turn revolt into revolution, bringing 20000 countrymen into the camp, then attacked Hippo Acra as Splendius, formerly an Oscan slave besieged Utica. Hanno formed his "Holy Troop," a group of middle- class mercenaries, and enlisted 15000 men and 100 elephants. Then the suffetes brought in Hamilcar. The civil war lasted 4 years: 241- Matho's capture in 237. He seemed thereafter to have achieved the military dynastic principle, with his son- in- law as leader of one of the most powerful parties in the senate while two of his daughters' husbands controlled much of the hinterlands.
Hamilcar then set out to create 'a true policy of annexation:' firstly to find a replacement for their lost territories, secondly to found an army kingdom with an autocratic central government. Barca annexed a third of the Iberian peninsula, but was killed in 228 BC. Son- in -law Hadsdrubal founded Cartagena, called by the Romans Carthago Nova. He wanted his family to put down Iberian roots, meaning he wanted to be independent: he had coins imprinted in his likeness. The mother country was increasingly dependent upon his silver mines. But he was murdered by an Iberian, and Hamilcar's son Hannibal pushed further west into central Iberia.
The Second Punic War: Saguntum (now Sagunto) was originally founded by the Greeks but had a strong pro- Roman faction. The pro- Carthaginian faction had been driven out but now wished to force themselves back in. the pro- Romans appealed for help. Hannibal was used to living a life of law and order and he also refrained from making large scale human sacrifices in the manner of his namesake. Hannibal besieged the town. The Romans decided for war in 218 BC. By that time he had conquered the town and crossed the Elbro. At this time the Punic fleet was half that of its numbers in the first Punic War. He enlisted 14000 soldiers from the Upper Italian Gauls. Four great battles followed that gave him the reputation as a great strategist. The Romans invaded north Spain and a Carthaginian naval squadron was defeated off Lilybaeum. Malta was taken. Hannibal marched through Italy for 13 years. He gained control of the Italian toe for a while and drew Philip V into the war. The Romans took Syracuse, which had again allied itself with Carthage, and there killed Archimedes, later conquered Philip and advances on Gades, taking all of Punic Spain. Then, under Scipio Africanus the elder, took Tunis and laid down peace terms. Hannibal fought in Africa and lost. A most harsh peace treaty. Hannibal reformed the state, having been made a suffete seven years later, broke the power of the 104 through election reform, paid the indemnities, made contact with Seleucid Antiochus III in Syria. The Romans heard this and demanded Hannibal. He fled to Tyre. The Romans beat Antiochus in his own territory. Hannibal fled to King Prusias I on the Bosphorus, who later betrayed him to the Romans. He was buried in `83 BC.
The Third Punic War: Around this time Cato, a senator, said "Ceterum censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam." They wanted to annex Tunisia. Massinissa, the Numidian, harassed Carthage so long that the finally declared war against him. According to the prior peace treaty, Carthage should have sanctioned this action beforehand. Rome arrived on the scene with two armies in 149 BC. The Romans demanded children as ransom, then their weapons, and then that they should leave their town altogether, which galvanized Carthaginian resistance. They held out for 3 years with their harbor blockaded. Rome sent Scipio Aemilianus. He built damns to cut off the city's harbor and hinterlands. The walls gave and there were 6 days of street fighting, after which Carthage was a Roman province.
17. The Phoenicians and Us
The Punic capital was thoroughly destroyed. The death of the city came to the Romans to seem the turning point in their own civilization, before which the Republic was young and strong and after which, opulent. At Virgil's time Rome was begining to except the exotic foreign gods like Tanit and Baal, who had been assimilated with other gods in the temple cities of the east (esp. Emesa), and had emerged as a sun god.
Malcus, who called himself Porphyrius, was a student of Neo- platonist Plotinus and developed a view of heaven in which eastern and western gods were brought together under a great father god. Septimus Severus had the likeness of Tanit put on Roman coinage.
Thales of Miletus was half Phoenician and Zeno of Citium was almost certainly pure Phoenician and ridiculed in Athens for this ancestry; he developed stoicism. The stoic saw god as a remote ruler and so sought to live not according to godly principles but intellectual. "The stoci ideal is inhuman and of such stern grandeur that it arouses the suspicion that behind it lurks Baal.
Tertullian and Augustine (from Thagaste) were both Carthaginians. Tertullian is famous for saying: 'credo quia absurdum est.' but in actuality he said: 'certum est, quia impossibile est,' referring the the bodily resurrection of Christ. He made the sacrificium intellectus, giving up trying to comprehend inexplicable phenomenon intellectually. Augustine's De Civitate Dei was the keystone for medieval European philosophy and for a long time virtually the basis of the Catholic church .